A futuristic corridor carved in the shape of a keyhole at Hilton Busan inside the Ananti Cove located in Gijang County in Busan. / Korea Times photo by Yun Suh-young

Emerson Pacific creates country's most stylish ‘staycation' getaways

By Yun Suh-young

BUSAN_ As the car pulls into the "entrance," a huge white wall greets its passengers, in front of which is the all-white concierge desk behind which stand concierges clad in black and white. Anything beyond the wall is unseen.

This is supposed to be a hotel and resort situated next to the beach, but none of it is visible from the entrance. When a car enters the parking lot, it descends down a spiral before coming to a stop. Then the crystal blue ocean spreads before their eyes.

Entering the Ananti Cove is always dramatic. This time, the same applies to the Hilton Busan, because the two are situated side by side. The Ananti Cove and Hilton Busan which opened in Busan's Gijang County in early July are both properties owned by Emerson Pacific and are part of the largest-scale project completed by the resort developer.

"The entrance is meant to provide surprise and playfulness. It's a humorous greeting for the guests. When people meet for the first time, they don't start immediately talking about work, but introduce themselves first and make jokes and break the ice. It's similar with our venues. We want to be polite but playful at the same time," said Lee Man-keu, president of Emerson Pacific Group, explaining the motive behind the ever-spectacular entry during an interview with The Korea Times.

Ananti is a local brand consisting of resorts and golf clubs, built and operated by the company. The group also owns the estates for Hilton Namhae and Hilton Busan.

The impressive architecture of Ananti Cove that induces awe in its guests is a result of a carefully plotted five-year plan, three of which were spent on construction.

"It's time that's most important to humans. And time is inseparable from space because every single second is spent in a certain location. So I think space itself is lifestyle. Our philosophy is to provide property that creates valuable time for our guests," he said.

Place with a story

Each of Emerson Pacific's properties has its own stories. Busan's Ananti Cove is meant to be a peaceful town in a small bay, hence the "cove." Ananti Seoul is designed like a "castle in a forest" while Hilton Namhae represents a small, tucked-away fishing village.

"A village or town always has a story because people are living in it. I think it's important for a place to have a story. If there's no story, there's no meaning. Who would pay for something meaningless? When I build a property, I always think about what value and meaning it will create," he said.

"Customers can feel the story when they enter and experience a location. Some people know exactly what we're trying to express while others unconsciously feel that something is different. The philosophy in design and architecture shouldn't be about better style, but about a consistent story."

In the case of Ananti Seoul, the interior is represented by classic tones of wood and black. In Busan's Ananti Cove, however, everything is white. A commonality is, there's always a long, mysterious corridor. While Ananti Seoul's corridor resembles something of an underground dungeon, Ananti Cove has a futuristic, heavenly corridor carved in the shape of a keyhole. It leads from the entrance to the elevator that takes guests to their rooms. When the door of the entrance opens, visitors will be taken aback by a single classic armchair placed in the middle of a vacant space.

"Boys tend to grow up with fantasies about tunnels," he said chuckling.

"I love watching movies. I think I watch one movie a day, if I'm not busy. I think I get more inspiration from movies than from traveling, although I do travel quite often (I have 1.8 million miles). I don't take photos and I read books from time to time," he said.

"I also like to meet people like me who create new properties. When I'm overseas, I contact people I want to meet even if I don't know them. From those meetings, I noticed a common thread _ everyone emphasizes the story and philosophy."

Adding value

A word Lee used often during the interview was "value" which he used in various contexts _ from valuing time, to adding value to a location and people's lifestyles.

The potential to bring out value is important when selecting a location, he said. This applied when choosing Busan as the third location for his project as well as for his previous properties.

"Busan is the second-largest city in the country, but I couldn't believe how beautifully preserved it was. ‘Where else would we go, if not here?' I thought. I wanted to bring out the value of this location," he said.

When he bought the property in Namhae to renovate as a resort and golf club in 2006, it was an underdeveloped region.

"Nobody knew where Namhae was. Korea is surrounded by the ocean on three sides but there was no seaside golf club. So I thought it would be a perfect place for it. For Ananti Seoul, we dreamed of being the first country club in Korea. There were lots of golf clubs, but no real ‘country club' which is a comprehensive leisure facility for families," he said.

It took three years to complete the construction of Ananti Busan and Hilton Busan which pre-opened in early July and officially on the 15th.

"It's probably the largest leisure facility in the country. I worried a lot for the past five years thinking whether this will succeed. But there is one thing that was on my mind. I wanted to build a one-of-a-kind place which is hard to find in Asia. When Koreans see a great place like this, they tend to say ‘This is so foreign.' That hurt my pride. It meant in Korea, there was no place that was as great as a foreign location. Why couldn't local properties be impressive? That drove me to create a place that could become Korea's pride," he said.

"I also wanted to create a prestigious local brand like Louis Vuitton or Four Seasons or Hilton. We don't have those kinds of brands other than those created by conglomerates. I wanted to build a unique local brand."

Lee hopes to suggest a lifestyle through his brand.

"It's not to say our value is right. But we want to suggest a type of lifestyle that we think is worth seeking. I wanted to suggest a way of living, a way of eating. Our property would be a place for people who share the same values as us," he said.

Eternal Journey, in that sense, is a unique space that adds value to time spent on the location. It's a huge bookstore inside a lifestyle complex situated between Ananti Penthouse and Hilton Busan. The complex has restaurants, lifestyle shops and cafes and bars.

The Eternal Journey is curated with mostly liberal arts books. It carries local and foreign books and has a special section categorized into four themes spotlighting figures worth reading about. For instance, the section about the writer Jane Austin has all types of related books about her life and philosophy, aimed to bring out interest in customers. The themes will change occasionally.

"Because many of our guests are families, we wanted to create a space that would be educational and culturally inspiring. Books feel distant to children these days so we wanted to provoke and spark their interest in reading. They need a certain stimulus to motivate them to learn. So we thought a lot about how to design the space," he said.

"We also plan to offer cultural events inside the bookstore. I noticed people in Busan are thirsty for culture which they lack, despite being the second-largest city in the country."

Those who are familiar with the Ananti brand would have noticed many references to and the use of books in the interior of the property.

"It's something that gives humans comfort," Lee said. "Just like we feel comfortable when we're in nature, we also somehow feel comfortable when we're surrounded by books. I think books are the greatest artificial thing humans ever created."

He doesn't have much time reading these days, although he used to be a bookworm in college.

"I love books, as physical objects, whether I read them or not. I feel most happy when I'm surrounded by them," he said.

Lee's upcoming projects will continue to be building properties that create value. One is to create homes and the other is to create offices.

"I want to build housing where people can get the most value out of their time. It can be purchased or rented monthly. I also want to build offices where people can be happier working."